Temple Treasure battle report

This is just a quickie as I'm busy (see previous post). ArabianSquire (AS), OtherArabianKnight (OAK) and myself (AK) had a 3 warband battle with treasure hunt scenario. The set up was as below with a Swamp Warband (AS), Human band (OAK) and an undead warband (AK).

The Treasure (a chaos helmet) was situated in a temple. The winner would be the player who managed to take the helmet off the bottom of the table.

The Temple has doors, so we house ruled a varient on the Treacherous Terrain rule. There were 3 doors at ground level and a magic door (portal) at the top of the temple, next to the treasure. Anyone entering the doors would make a 1 die quality check. If they failed they were stuck in the labyrinth below the temple until next activation. If they passed another die was rolled with the following results:

1. 1: still lost in the labyrinth unitl next activation
2. 2: exit through west door
3. 3: exit through south door
4. 4: exit through east door
5. 5: exit through portal
6. 6: player to choose which door to exit

Action started with everyone headed towards the temple. The zombie cossack of the undead band carried the mummy to the foot of the temple stairs to try and head off any enemies whilst the rest of the band readied themslves with the inevitable clash with the humans. With a coupl eof truns each there appeared to be two storms brewing. One At the top of the main temple entrance with the mummy and a selection of swamp dwellers, and also the undead with he humans in the centre of the table.

The Humans were first to break. Their leader suffered a gruesome death causing the majority of the force to flee back towards their starting point. Up at the temple the main entrance was blocked with lizardmen, mummys and frog shamen. This didn't matter as AS used the cling attribute of the giant lizard to completely by-pass the hazards and take hold of the treasure. Suddenly the human position , basically all around the exiting point, seemed to be a bit more tactically well placed. Not the last time a bit of fleeing provided some advantage.

The mad dash across the battlefield was on, with undead and human alike desperate to block the lizardmens route to victory. The Giant Lizard exited the temple and handed the helmet over to its leader. The leader was temporality knocked down by a well aimed arrow, but recovered to continue his journey, only to be caught and slaughtered in a pincer attack by a skeleton warrior and flying wraith, causing the lizards flee, and leaving the treasure sitting on the ground between the two undead with a short, unoccupied run to victory.

But with one final twist of fate, one of the fleeing lizardmen was close enough (due to his failed morale test) to run in, pick up the helmet and escape all in one smooth motion, winning the game and setting off the gleeful dancing from the 8 year old boy, having just robbed his Dad of a win.

Despite having little (or no) interaction with the treasure, the human force was key to this battle. With them all moving round the same (eastern) side of the woodland, this left the lizard's flank open for escape. This also tied the undead into conflict preventing them moving over to intercept in numbers. However all credit to Arabian Squire for using his forces special abilities to bypass the difficulties at the temple and hasten his escape. With the helmet sitting between my two undead towards the end I was sure I had it in the bag, until the routed lizard man rolled 3 actions and stole victory right from under my undeads exposed nose cavities. A memorable finish.

Reality Bites, Projects Put Back

Sigh. I suppose it had happen at some time - the dreaded REAL LIFE. Well the next while will be pretty busy at Arabian Towers with alterations to the house and (ironically) the Easter holidays eating up more time and space than a zombie tribble outbreak. As such my project and gaming plans have mostly been put on hold for around 4 weeks until normality strikes again. Quite frankly when I've only got brief snatches of hobby time to relax, dry brushing a squad of ratsmen is a bit of a chore and not the diversion I look need. As you may have spotted in previous RPG posts I've a new character in the game and the model for it is looking a mite ghostly, so I'll probably try and put some paint to Ranger in the next while. There will be a couple of other quicky projects, but more on them as they are done.

Happy gaming and take care.

New Player, New Agenda

Well not quite new on either account really. As mentioned in a previous post, my brother, ArabianOtherKnight has come out of a 2 year hiatus and joins us for a game ever odd week.

One game we started to play years ago was Games Workshop's Bloodbowl. We never got much further than a couple of games and enthusiastically collecting up old and new BB teams. More collecting was done than playing, that's for sure.

So when he mentioned an interest in dusting off the rulebooks again I was more than happy. AOK has a few nice 2nd Edition teams in storage at the moment, so they won't be making a showing for a while, but here's what I've dragged out from the back of the cupboard so far. There's a bit of work to be done to bring them up to scratch. I suppose that's the result of a tight budget allowance and ebay.

2nd Edition Elven team. I can remember when and where these were painted - way back in 1991. It show's, but once on the field they are cohesive enough to pass (or run or block, ha,ha!) so aren't marked for a repaint yet.

2nd Edition Undead Team. Now this is a ready (well) painted ebay purchase. Unfortunately I fear these players below to AOK (although so far the mention of them just draws a blank face. I can only hope it's my bad memory as they are v. nice.

A poorly painted out-the-box Human team and Star Player Zug The Mighty. Not much more to say. Actually I do. I remember using this lot to get a grip of the rules again and it's amazing how OK a poorly but consistently painted team uniform can look on field.

Ah, my Skaven team. Again painted around 1991 (but after the elves and it shows). Originally with the left hand troll below and on the last airing a mutant rat ogre was bought from ebay. I've a particular soft spot for this collection of rodents.

The bog standard from the box Orc team. Again purchased off ebay and obviously undercoated ready for a new strip. I suppose I'd best make them the first BB painting I do. Don't want them to get angry!

Another Human team, mostly from the box, but with a couple of metal players. Better painted than their fellow homo-sapiens above so I hope they are happy with their team colours 'cos they ain't changing any time soon!

Two 2nd Ed BB trolls (left hand one in the skaven team colours) and a Dreamscape Ogre marked for recruitment once he drops the club. As a historical note the middle troll was painted by AOK for his mutant team way back when he must have been around the tender age of 13. His painting is better now!

Six Go Down To The Caves

After a cancellation due to illness (mine) the RPG group met up to continue The Enemy Within campaign with the group exploring a cave system under the tainted Castle Wittgenstein.
****** Spoiler Alert *********

On paper (at least my pre-read GM version!) this seemed quite a simple matter and I feared that the players would be bored with the session. But a lesson learnt - never underestimate the actions of a) the dice and b) your players liven up a session.
There are only 3 small groups of beasties really to deal with down there - giant rats, whiplash worms and some giant bats. None of these have a WS score of more than 25-33 with the largest group being 6 bats, so shouldn't really cause much concern. The first encounter was with the rats, which with the Dwarf Geddi charging tripping and falling on his face in front of a six foot rat at the start, accompanied by some "unlucky" rat attacks on the party left some of them wounded and infected. And these were just rats in the first encounter. There's nothing like a partial victory to instil a sense of unease around every encounter. I suppose I shouldn't have been that suprised. This group seem to be able to dispatch groups of thugs, guards and beastmen with little effort (or perhaps a bit of effort sometimes) but struggle when faced with any dogs, rats, etc.

So my advice to GMs is just keep getting the players to confirm their marching order whenever they've set off from a situation. The request that the GM needs to know where everyone is as they enter an area does wonders for paranoia!

An unusual RPG occurance is now set up by way of a mass battle - the party and a band of outlaws storm the castle next session. What could possibly go wrong?
 
(Lets hope there are no rats!)

Treasure Time - a SoBH Battle Report

A battle with my new Swamp Warband and MacSver's Goblin Horde. A Treasure hunt scenario was rolled. The 3 treasures were set up accross the board. Treasure one in the west was on an abandoned escarpment with variable access points. Treasure 2 was in the middle of a swamp. Treasure 3 in the east was up a dead-end bottleneck path at the base of a tower.

Forces (all stats are from published rule books):

• Swamp Warband: Lizardman Leader, Lizardman Warriors (x2), Giant Lizard, Frogfolk Shaman, Frogfolk spearman.
• MacSavages Orc Warband: Orc Warboss, Savage Orc Warrior(x2), Goblin Archer (x2), Goblin Light Infantry (x12!)

The Goblins rolled as defenders as set up first, followed by the Swampies.

The first couple of turns were all movement up the board. The first focus is Treasure1 as it's the most open. The Orc boss, backed up by the slow Savage Orc and mis-firing Goblin LI are on course to clash with the Lizard Warriors and Giant Lizard. It's just a case of who gets there first. One of Goblin archers heads for the tower base, trying to take advantage of the lack of opponents in the eastern half of the battle ground.

The Giant lizard rushes the first possible treasure location, which turns out to be empty. This almost seems inconsequential as the Orc Boss and Lizard clash. There followed a protracted battle between the WarBoss (with Savage Orc in backup) and the Giant Lizard who alternatively managed to stun each other in the next few turns.

Attention now turns to the middle of the battlefield. The Savage Orc on short move heads straight towards the edge of the wood with sights on the possible treasure in the swamp; however the Goblins formation is broken up as no group move is available being out of range of WarBoss and mainly failing single or double Q4+ rolls. Only three or four goblins actually make it to the edge of the woods with the savage orc, the others straggling behind. The Lizard forces also head into the forest/swamp area. With fewer numbers in a tighter area activations are proving to be less of a problem.

Next the focus is split between the last 2 possible treasure locations. Round the swampland the Lizard leader, Shaman and Spearman make for the tower to try and guard against a quick goblin archer grab and run from the tower. Meanwhile a lizardman, taking advantage of his amphibious skill races across the water to claim the treasure, only for his worst fears to be confirmed - it's empty, meaning the treasure was at the base of the tower. Gleefully the Gobbo archer races up to the final location to pick up the prize, firing an arrow into the pursuing Lizard Leader on the way. With Goblin Light Infantry also coming up to the gap between the swamp and the tower, a pitched bloodbath of a finale looks to be brewing.

On the escapement, the realiastion finally dawns that the big fight here is pointless, so the Giant Lizard takes advantage of the knocked down Warboss to break towards the action on the other side of the swamp, where there is a bit of a skirmish developing. The westerly goblin light infantry start to flank south, looking to head off any lizard withdrawls. Meanwhile, at the tower, the Lizardman leader slays the goblin to claim the prize for himself. All that remains is to sneak past the mass of goblins at the bottom of the path and run for home!

But to MacSver's dismay, one of his goblins is gruesomely killed. The majority of goblins, so far from the support of their leader, fail morale tests to one degree or another and flee. The Savage Orcs fair little better, one failing and fleeing and the other staying still thanks to an entrance spell from the frogfolk shaman. With the flanking Goblin Light Infantry to far away (and failing to many Quality rolls) to catch up, the leader rushes down the path and home to victory.

I have to admit that when MacSver put his handfuls of figures onto the table that a pasting was in order. But the lesson from this battle was simple, lots of poor quality troups are not always the answer. They really needed the quality bonus from the leader to move into any effective position. It proved to dangerous to roll 2 dice for them individually, and only rolling one left alot of them standing doing nothing turn after turn. Really, had we both not been spending so much time (and dice) focused to the Warboss and Giant Lizard knocking lumps out of each other the game could well have gome the other way. It probably slowed the goblin advance towards the tower allowing my meagre numbers to get across just in time.

We'll see what happens next time...

(thanks are due to MacSver for his memory jogging notes, as this post has gone up a week after the battle!)

Frugal postings

Finally managed to scribe a my first proper post to contribute to "A Year of being Frugal". The one month mark since I signed up to contribute was looming large. I've a few more practical postings in the pipeline - it's just a case of getting through the small projects and taking the accompanying photos.

Anyway have a look at it and the other fine articles (by others) and as always feel free to add to the experience.

Monster Mash

Having just painted a new SoBH warband it was only natural the ArabianSquire would want to play something completely different -  Firefly Games "Monster Island". We were joined by my brother, ArabianOtherknight, so a 3 way battle ensued.

For the first set-to the monsters chosen were ElectoTron (Robot), Kajiro (Not-Godzila) and Komukade (Insect). The Island Terrain included a central swamp area, a handful of geysers and a pletora of trees & (blue) rocks. Not-Godzilla started at the top of the picture.


Everyone made a move to the center of the table (avoiding the swamp)

Kajiro and Komukade tangled first, exchanging blows, with ElectoTron slowly making its way round to join in.

With the giant dinosaur distracted the robot sneaked round behind him and hacked him down, out of the fight, with a savage Razor sword attack.

Komukade then took advantage of the celebrating Robot to grab and throw onto a geyser. Fortunately it didn't errupt. 

After an exchange of ranged attacks (rocks thrown by Komukade and an electric blast from ElectoTron) Electro came into Hand-to-hand, and with the advantage of it's powerful swords cut down the giant insect to rule the island.





A second match up was decided with different monsters this time. The combatants were the MegaKong, Giant archnid Macrocheira and the armour plated dino Steg-a-atora. 

Steg-a-tora moved to the hill crest to roar his challenge over the island. Macrocheira responded by cocooning him in it's steel-like web and moving in to grab whilst the dino struggled to release itself. 

MegaKong closed in and threw an uprooted tree at the pair, but missed.

The giant spider responded by throwing the grappled Steg-a-tora at the giant ape, and before the dinosaur could respond it was pushed into the geyser, 

which this time went off. Fortunately Steg-a-tora is built like a tank and it survived the watery assault.

The spider rushed over to and piledrived MegaKong into the turf, letting Steg-a-tora recover and sneak round the back for an attack.

Poor Macrocheira ended up as the filling in a monster sandwich and it was crushed.

MegaKong moved forward and grabbed Steg-a-tora. The armoured dinosaur was no match for the awesome strength of the mighty ape, and over the next 3 rounds, despite it's desperate thrashing, was held and squeezed to its end.

Mega Kong reigned over the island....until the next challenge.

They Came Out Of The Swamp

As mentioned in my previous post, I'd discovered enough painted figures to almost make up a varied Swamp themed warband. Well, one quickly painted cheap toy dinosaur toy later it's here for inspection.

• 8 x Lizardman Warrior (52 pts) Q3+ C4 Amphibious Tailslap
• 1 x Lizardman Leader/Champion (82 pts) Q3+ C4 Amphibious Tailslap Leader/Tough
• 1 x Giant Lizard (44pts) Q4+ C4 Animal, Amphibious, Big, Clinging, Tailslap
• 1 x Fishman Warrior (23 pts) Q4+ C3 Amphibious
• 1 x Frogfolk Shaman (36pts) Q3+ C1 Amphibious, Magic-User, Slow
• 1 x Frogfolk Spearman (32pts) Q4+ C2 Amphibious, Acrobat

Figures are some old OOP Games Workshop Saurials, WoTC D&D figures & the aforementioned cheap dino toy. Again I've put down stats instead of a roster for flexibility. Also note I've given the option to have my bone helmeted lizardman as a leader or a champion. There are some old (but unpainted) GW Skink archers on the shelf somewhere that I could paint up for additional Lizardman skirmishers. But considering that up to 4 days ago I didn't have any warband I'm pretty happy. One design note is that Lizardmen are pricey points wise so I'm not going to get many of them in a standard 300pt battle!

Unleash the small child in you.

There's nothing like an enthusiastic 8 year old to get things sorted. A few home chores had meant that my son  and I couldn't make it to the local gaming club meet (which is on Saturday mornings). So with my blessing, along with the odd condition, Arabiansquire was let loose to play in the hobby shed. The previous home session where we tried a roleplaying lite turn to the gaming must have left an impression as instead of the usual huge neverending mass battle, he constructed a varied band of adventurers and a series of scenarios to play through. A few back and forth trips back to the house to check on "Song of Blades..." stats and he was away and entertained for a couple of hours. The next day I managed to join in for the last couple of skirmishes - a woodland battle and a final assault on a castle.

All good fun, but the main point here is that the castle had been a bargain buy around 3 years ago and had never witnessed the roll of a single die until the wee lad had raked through some of my boxes and unearthed it for play. He also managed highlight a couple of mini's from an ebay job lot I bought ages ago which, when combined with a few other long lost figures, will almost make up an new themed warband - one of my 2010 pledge points. Double bonus! So it just goes to show - unleash the small child in you, dive into those dusty boxes and re-discover your once prised purchases.